FTSE 100 slips as miners retreat

Britain's top share index fell 0.1pc on Thursday as commodity stocks were hit
by weaker raw material prices and the Federal Reserve's assessment that the
recession in the US was easing failed to help the market.

The FTSE 100 opened down 1.01 points at 4,278.97 after gaining 1.2pc to close at 4,279.98 in the previous session. The index is down 3.5pc this year, but is 23.6pc higher than a six-year low set on March 9.

Xstrata lost 1.1pc after it put more pressure on takeover target Anglo American on Wednesday to come to the negotiating table on a proposed merger.

Energy stocks were also weaker as crude hovered around $68 per barrel, well below the highs above $72 struck last week. BP, Royal Dutch Shell, BG Group and Cairn Energy fell between 0.1pc and 0.7pc.

Ericsson chief executive Carl-Henric Svanberg is to become chairman of BP in a surprise appointment that ends the oil major's lengthy search for a new chairman. Svanberg will take over from Peter Sutherland at BP in January 2010.

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday stuck to its huge programme of buying government and mortgage debt, which is designed to keep borrowing costs low and boost recovery, and said it saw signs that the deep U.S. recession was easing.

The US central bank kept interest rates near zero and signalled less concern on deflation.

On Wall Street, the Dow fell for a fourth day reversing early gains, and other indexes ended higher but well off the day's highs on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve statement, which was a little more downbeat than the market had been expecting.

No major UK data is due for release on Thursday but investors will eye the final reading of US first quarter GDP, although no revision is expected to the 2.8pc preliminary estimate.